Pakistan cannot survive without democracy: Bilawal Bhutto

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Tuesday that the country could not survive without democracy.

Addressing a large PPP rally in Islamabad, the Bhutto scion lashed out at the government and paid tribute to his mother, Benazir Bhutto and grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

“Whenever rights were usurped, PPP raised the flag of rebellion,” he said.

Bilawal said that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had provided the country with a unified constitutions which was still functioning in the country. He said that Bhutto had refused to bow his head before a dictator while Benazir had spoken out against Musharraf’s hypocritical policies.

“The entire resources of the country were in the hands of 22 families before Zulfikar Ali Bhutto recovered them,” he said. “Bhutto also brought back 90,000 prisoners of war from India.”

Bilawal lashed out at Nawaz Sharif, accusing him of amending the constitution to become Amir-ul-Momineen.

He accused General Zia-ul-Haq of usurping the rights of women in the name of Islam and stated that he had promoted terrorism in the country as well.

Paying tribute to the founding members of PPP, Bilawal said that people and went but the caravan never changed its discourse.

Former president and President Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) Asif Ali Zardari came down hard on the rival parties levelling a wide spectrum of allegations on them.

He spoke of former president general (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s bleak future in politics. “I would tell dictators that they had no future and Musharraf can very much realise this now. Hence, he has gone into hiding,” he said. He said since Musharraf could not return into politics, therefore, he was trying to change dynamics of the politics.

The former president assailed ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif for his alleged corruption saying that he had drained the country of public exchequer. He said Mian Nawaz had failed to conceive that the PPP would not protect his government again. Now his party would bring its own democracy, he added.

“We fulfilled the promises made by late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto. We gave Balochs their rights and Pukhtoons their identity,” he said.

Zardari said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president came into power through polls rigging which was challenged by Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan. “We are not hungry for getting into power. We regret over what the country is encountering,” he said.

The PPPP president expressed warmly gestures towards Afghanistan on this occasion calling the terrorists an enigma not for them only but for Pakistan as well. “We want to make friendship and fortify ties with Afghanistan. We want to see Afghanistan’s border as stronger,” he said. Zardari also warned India on its claim over Kashmir territory. “Listen you Indians! Kashmir is our jugular vein and India cannot get Kashmir.”